The planets have aligned and it’s Pluto season once again. The third time’s a charm for Future as he returned with his guest-less Mixtape Pluto album last week, which leads the discussion surrounding the new episode of Billboard Unfiltered.

Future is angling for his third No. 1 album of 2024 and his eighth consecutive leader on the Billboard 200. For staff writer Kyle Denis, there’s never enough Future in his life. “Never too much Future for me, to be honest,” he said. “‘Told My’ is my favorite song. ‘I told my b—h if I gotta be faithful, I might fall off.’ That’s a bar.”

Denis continued: “That’s gonna be something I live by for the next eight months or so until the next tape drops maybe. I had a great time with the Future record. I just feel like he never lets me down in terms of giving me a collection of solid tracks that I like to bump for the next couple of months.”

Deputy Director, Editorial Damien Scott lent his stamp of approval to the project. “I love the album, I think it’s great. I also love the other two albums he dropped. There’s only so many hours I could devote to Future. I can’t play him around my kids,” Scott admitted. “It’s not like too much Future, but you could’ve held off on this while we’re still enjoying this other album that still has legs.”

He added: “He’s great at making the story. He’s great at furthering the narrative. Everything we’ve learned about Future is through The Shade Room, which is hilarious because we don’t learn much from his music about him, but he’s able to continue this narrative that we all buy into album after album.”

Over the weekend, Janet Jackson made headlines when she told The Guardian that presidential candidate Kamala Harris is “not black” and she “heard that she’s Indian.” She faced plenty of backlash on social media over the false claims.

Guest anchor and senior producer Tetris Kelly chalked this up to being a classic case of misinformation being spread. “No matter how famous you are, she’s still an auntie,” he said. “That’s the way I look at it. That’s your Black auntie that be at the cookout that be like, ‘Yeah, I saw on Facebook.’ We talk about misinformation and that’s kind of how it works.”

Kyle Denis took a different approach expecting more from Ms. Jackson. “I’m expecting her to be a knowledgable person because she’s a voting citizen who’s grown.”

The discussion took a turn when breaking down Chloe Bailey’s solo career as the fellas gave her advice on how she could capitalize on her talents and fully blossom into a star.

“I think she would do well with an editor or an executive producer to streamline the visions that she has that feel too much on a single song let alone an entire album,” Denis said. “She probably does have too much freedom. Sometimes you need to hone it in.”

Denis thinks there needs to be a realignment for Chloe’s branding so she could reap the benefits like we saw with Sabrina Carpenter and her Short ‘n Sweet summer of dominance.

“When I think of the name Chloe Bailey, a lot of things come to mind, but they’re not really a uniform brand of what Chloe Bailey is or represents,” he continued. “Half the reason people were so into the Sabrina Carpenter arc this year was how well she branded herself across those singles aesthetically, style-wise all that stuff. There’s a disconnect there on that level with Chloe.”

Damien Scott wants to see her hit the studio with a sonic savant like the Grammy-winning Darkchild to help steer her next era’s direction.

“I think there could be a lot of success had if she were to sit down with somebody we all threw out Darkchild. I think she needs a direction. The way that Darkchild talked about working with Brandy, that’s the type of work she needs,” he said. “What are you really trying to say? Let’s find some sounds that match that. Let’s find some themes that match that.”

Watch the full episode below.

Demi Lovato is making sure child influencers are getting the financial protection they deserve.

The “La La Land” singer met with California Governor Gavin Newsom this week as he signed into law two pieces of legislation to ensure children and teenagers who perform in online content are protected from financial abuse. Per Newsom’s website, SB 764 (Padilla) establishes “financial and legal protections for minors featured in monetized online content (i.e., child vloggers) by mandating their parent or guardian set aside a percentage of their earnings in trust accounts.” Meanwhile, AB 1880 (Alanis) “expands the Coogan Law to include minors who are employed as content creators on online platforms, such as YouTube. The Coogan Law is a decades-old statutory scheme that protects child performers and creators by ensuring that their employers place at least 15 percent of their gross earnings in trust till they reach adulthood.”

Lovato shared in a press statement, “In order to build a better future for the next generation of child stars, we need to put protections in place for minors working in the digital space. I’m grateful to Governor Newsom for taking action with this update to the Coogan Law that will ensure children featured on social media are granted agency when they come of age and are properly compensated for the use of their name and likeness.”

Protection for minors in entertainment is a topic that hits close to home for Lovato. Earlier this month, Lovato unveiled her Hulu documentary, Child Star, which works to “deconstruct the highs and lows of growing up in the spotlight through the lens of some of the world’s most famous former child stars,” per the corresponding press release.

In the project, they recruited fellow childhood stars including Drew Barrymore, Kenan Thompson, Christina Ricci, Raven-Symoné, JoJo Siwa, Alyson Stoner and more, and they reflect on their careers, including struggles with substance abuse, societal pressure and more.

Kendrick Lamar star has never shined brighter.

Earlier this month, he once again brought the rap world to a halt with the release of an untitled song on his Instagram account just a few days after he announced that he would be headlining Super Bowl 59. For the cover art, he used a picture of a pair of tattered black Nike Air Force 1s. The artwork matches the same aesthetic as the the artwork for “6:16 in LA” and “Meet the Grahams,” but as far as we know, there’s no backstory behind the sneakers in the picture.

However, there is a nice little wrinkle that came up a couple days ago. The picture is from an eBay listing posted by “Good2BYou” that belongs to Billy Lingo and Darla Wilson, a couple from North Little Rock, Arkansas. The Internet had already figured out that the picture came from eBay, but no one knew who was behind the account until now.

Local news station THV11 caught up with the couple to talk about the absurdity of the situation. “What happened was I sold the shoes and I said, ‘Oh great,I sold a pair of shoes,’” Wilson recalled of that fateful September night. “So I got ‘em, boxed ‘em up, printed the label, and all of a sudden, my phone was blowing up.” They sold the sneakers for the asking price of $70, but cancelled the order when they were made aware of Lamar and the song.

“Well, I’m not gonna lie to you,” Lingo explained while wearing a shirt with a picture of the sneakers on it. “I didn’t know a whole lot about him. and I knew who he was — my son told me about him and my daughter told me about him — But, I really know about him now.” Adding, “We had an opportunity put before us, and I’m not a greedy person. I’ve got the ‘Buy It Now’ for $100,000 or ‘Buy It Now’ for $75,000, and I know that’s probably not going to happen, but it could.”

If you want a piece of rap history, the bidding starts at $5,000 with this Sunday (Sept. 29) at 1:00 a.m. or you can cut in front of the line for a mere 75 racks. There are zero bids, so far.

Billboard reached out to Kendrick’s camp for comment.

Wedding bells seem to be on the horizon for Lana Del Rey!

The “Summertime Sadness” superstar and boat captain Jeremy Dufrene reportedly obtained a marriage license on September 23, People confirmed with the Lafourche Parish Clerk of Court. Once a marriage license is obtained, the couple has 30 days to tie the knot.

Billboard has reached out to Del Rey’s team for confirmation.

While Del Rey appears to know Dufrene — they were spotted holding hands last weekend in the UDel Rey and Dufrene have been spotted out on dates recently, and seem to have known each other for several years. She was previously pictured with him in photos she posted in 2019, from a swamp and marsh tour south of New Orleans, which she captioned: “Jeremy lemme be captain at Arthur’s Air Boat Tours x.” More recently, Del Rey tagged him on an Instagram post this past May. She captioned the photo, which also featured her two siblings, “Family w my guy @jeremy.dufrene @codyjay.”

The couple was most recently photographed holding hands in coordinating blue outfits earlier this month, when they attended model Karen Elson’s New York City wedding to Electric Lady Studios owner Lee Foster.

Dufrene is a captain with Arthur’s Airboat Tours in Louisiana. Video footage on TMZ from one of Dufrene’s tours shows he has no fear of getting up close and personal with alligators.